Reputation: 2461

Windows 7 environment variable not working in path

I am trying to set up some path using environment variable. I added an environment variable "MAVEN_HOME" with the value "C:\maven". Then in the path I added "%MAVEN_HOME%\bin;...rest". When I type "echo $MAVEN_HOME%" I get the correct "C:\maven" printed on the screen. But when I type "mvn" which is a batch file in the "bin" directory, it can't find it.

So, I manually added the entire path in PATH. "C:\maven\bin;...rest" and it was able to find "mvn" and execute it.

Could someone help me what I did wrong?

Upvotes: 44

Answers (14)

qskane

Reputation: 521

In my Windows 7.

// not working for me
D:\php\php-7.2.6-nts\php.exe

// works fine
D:\php\php-7.2.6-nts

Upvotes: 2

xjdeng

Reputation: 49

I had this problem in Windows 10 and it seemed to be solved after I closed "explorer.exe" in the Task Manager.

Upvotes: 2

Venkateswara Rao

Reputation: 5392

To address this problem, I have used setx command which try to set user level variables.

I used below...

setx JAVA_HOME "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_92"

setx PATH %JAVA_HOME%\bin

NOTE: Windows try to append provided variable value to existing variable value. So no need to give extra %PATH%... something like %JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PATH%

Upvotes: 4

kaybee99

Reputation: 4744

My issue turned out to be embarrassingly simple:

Restart command prompt and the new variables should update

Upvotes: 53

Nikolay Frick

Reputation: 2205

Make sure both your System and User paths are set correctly.

Upvotes: 0

pcmind

Reputation: 990

I had exactly the same problem, to solve it, you can do one of two things:

Put all variables in System Variables instead of User and add the ones you want to PATH

Put all variables in User Variables, and create or edit the PATH variables in User Variable, not In System. The Path variables in System don't expand the User Variables.

If the above are all correct, but the problem is still present, you need to check the system Registry, in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment, to make sure the "PATH" key type is REG_EXPAND_SZ (not REG_SZ).

Upvotes: 59

Thakhani Tharage

Reputation: 11

I had the same problem, I fixed it by removing PATHEXT from user variable. It must only exist in System variable with .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH;.MSC

Also remove the variable from user to system and only include that path on user variable

Upvotes: 1

Anthony Hayward

Reputation: 2352

If the PATH value would be too long after your user's PATH variable has been concatenated onto the environment PATH variable, Windows will silently fail to concatenate the user PATH variable.

This can easily happen after new software is installed and adds something to PATH, thereby breaking existing installed software. Windows fail!

The best fix is to edit one of the PATH variables in the Control Panel and remove entries you don't need. Then open a new CMD window and see if all entries are shown in "echo %PATH%".

Upvotes: 3

kees

Reputation: 1

Copy the value of path to notepad and check if this corresponds with the echo %path% in terminal window and make changes if needed. Then delete the old path value and paste the notepad value back in. I assume some invisible character entered there by some installation corrupted the path value.

Upvotes: 0

Daniel Freeman

Reputation: 51

Also worth making sure you're using the command prompt as an administrator - the system lock on my work machine meant that the standard cmd just reported mvn could not be found when typing mvn --version

To use click 'start > all programs > accessories', right-click on 'command prompt' and select 'run as administrator'.

Upvotes: 5

wmchrog

Reputation: 171

Things like having %PATH% or spaces between items in your path will break it. Be warned.

Yes, windows paths that include spaces will cause errors. For example an application added this to the front of the system %PATH% variable definition:

C:\Program Files (x86)\WebEx\Productivity Tools;C:\Sybase\IQ-16_0\Bin64;

which caused all of the paths in %PATH% to not be set in the cmd window.

My solution is to demarcate the extended path variable in double quotes where needed:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\WebEx\Productivity Tools";C:\Sybase\IQ-16_0\Bin64;

The spaces are therefore ignored and the full path variable is parsed properly.

Upvotes: 16

Richard

Reputation: 71

If there is any error at all in the PATH windows will silently disregard it. Things like having %PATH% or spaces between items in your path will break it. Be warned

Upvotes: 5